Tractor-Trailer and/or dolly vehicles are used to transport large quantities of cargo across the United States. Various industries and consumers are dependent upon these trailer/dolly vehicles for the transport of their goods. In particular, the shipping industry, including large companies such as UPS®, FedEx®, and the United States Postal Service® among others, utilize trailer/dolly vehicles to transport and ship goods to consumers. These vehicles help the shipping industry adequately transport goods in order to meet the demand of US consumers, which require huge volumes of goods to be shipped daily.
What makes trailer/dolly vehicles unique is that these vehicles are constantly being used and operated. Companies try to maximize use of trailer/dolly vehicles, as this allows companies to fully allocate their resources and limit costs. In fact, companies work under the operational model whereby trailer/dolly vehicles are in constant use. This saves the industry thousands, if not millions, of dollars in operational savings.
Inevitably, however, trailer/dolly vehicles must be serviced, which results in trailer/dolly downtime. Servicing trailer/dolly vehicles disrupts the operational model of shipping companies, and results in monetary and operational losses, as shipping companies cannot maximize the efficiency of their trailer/dolly vehicles. These companies, which still must meet consumer demand, then need to compensate for servicing delays by purchasing additional trailer/dolly vehicles or by renting additional trailer/dolly vehicles from another company. In both instances, these inefficiencies due to trailer/dolly downtime costs companies time and money.
Thus, it is desirable to avoid such trailer/dolly vehicle downtime, especially periodic causes of downtime for these vehicles. One such periodic cause of trailer/dolly downtime could be the failure of an Anti-Lock Brake (ABS) module. Other such periodic causes of trailer/dolly downtime could be the failure of the Booster Valve, the Pressure Protection Valve, or any other such valve in the trailer/dolly, as well as the trailer/dolly control and hydraulic systems. These components are typically located mounted on a manifold system, which is located within the system module that is attached to the trailer/dolly vehicle.
It is thus desirable to reduce, if not limit entirely, the amount of trailer/dolly vehicle downtime because of downtime due to the trailer/dolly system module or manifold system.
Prior art designs of such system modules and manifold system attached to system modules required the entire trailer/dolly vehicle to be inoperable if a problem within the system module or manifold system occurred. Thus, when the system module or manifold system located within the system module had to be replaced, the entire trailer/dolly vehicle would be inoperable and could not be used, resulting in the delays and inefficiencies described above. Furthermore, prior art designs of system modules and manifold systems for trailer/dolly systems have greater failure rates as these prior art designs are difficult to access and fix, because these system modules containing manifold systems are not easily removable.
What is thus desired, therefore, is an apparatus and method for providing a system module and manifold system that may be easily removable and replaced, so that trailer/dolly vehicle downtime is minimized. What is further desired is a system module and manifold system that may be easily removed, so that if a problem is detected in the system module or manifold system, the system module and/or manifold system may be quickly replaced with another system module and/or manifold system, allowing for continued use of the trailer/dolly vehicle and minimizing downtime.
What is further desired is for the manifold system to be easily installed and adaptable with a system module, the system module being attached to a trailer/dolly vehicle. What is further desired is that the manifold system may be inserted into a slot within a trailer/dolly system module and may be slidable within this slot. It is further desired for the manifold system to be attached or secured to the system module by using fasteners.
What is further desired is for the manifold system to use multiple passage ways internal to the manifold system that minimize fittings and connections and simplify plumbing with other components on the system module in order to reduce leakage points and speed up assembly time. Furthermore, it is desired for the manifold system to connect various valves to one another within a system module and for the manifold system to use a boot to protect certain valve components from contamination.